Nestlé advances child labor battle plan

Nestlé advances child labor battle plan:
An independent investigation into Nestlé's cocoa supply chain has found numerous child labor violations and kickstarted an ambitious plan to eventually eradicate forced labor and child labor in its production cycle.
The study was carried out by the Fair Labor Association with Nestlé's support.
"Our investigation of Nestlé's cocoa supply chain represents the first time a multinational chocolate producer has allowed its procurement system to be completely traced and assessed. For too long child labor in cocoa production has been everybody's problem and therefore nobody's responsibility," said FLA President Auret van Heerden.
It means Nestlé is the first chocolate-maker to comprehensively map its cocoa supply chain – and can work on identifying problems areas, training and educating workers and taking action against child labor violations.
The FLA investigation found violations of Nestlé's own supplier code, including excessive hours and unpaid workers. It also found 72 percent of injuries were from workers using machetes.
Read the FLA-Nestle report
But child labor remained the primary concern for the FLA which said there were systemic and cultural challenges to overcome in Ivory Coast.
Jose Lopez, Nestlé vice president of operations, told CNN: "There is no way, that long term, a company like ours can accept a situation like this. So it's a matter of how fast, how well, and how many people have to participate in getting these sorts of problems behind us.
"We are determined to make real impact and hopefully also to be used as a lighthouse to show others that it's just a matter of getting started."
He added: "My sense is that what we want to do here is to prove that it can happen. We will work with the World Cocoa Foundation and be in schools, we will work with International Cocoa Initiative and gather the cooperatives and put people there ... to give training on the farmers. We will work with the government on the action plan, we will work with the certifiers.
"It is true that what is new is purely an expression of the will to assemble everybody, to break down these silos and to get the action moving, instead of each one of us trying to give his own interpretation and his own answer."
The FLA recommended Nestlé tell every person in its supply chain about the company's code of practice which bans child labor, and make sure people are trained and expected to uphold the code.
The FLA also said Nestlé has developed a strategy to improve practices by its Ivorian workers, including producing an illustrated guide to the supplier code by October and, in the longer term, train key suppliers to try to create a workforce dedicated to protecting children.
Van Heerden said: "By inviting FLA to completely map and document its cocoa supply chain, consumers will have the complete picture they need to hold Nestlé, the largest food company in the world, accountable for where its cocoa comes from ...
"Now that its supply chain has been mapped, Nestlé will be held accountable for the kind of sustainable and comprehensive changes that ensure a future of responsibly-sourced, code-compliant cocoa."

Ferrero sets date to end cocoa slavery - The CNN Freedom Project: Ending Modern-Day Slavery - CNN.com Blogs

http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/2012/04/20/ferrero-sets-date-to-end-cocoa-slavery/
Source: CNN.com Blogs
April 20th, 2012
Chocolate maker Ferrero has pledged to eradicate slavery from farms where it sources its cocoa by 2020, as part of a growing movement by the multi-billion dollar industry to clean up its supply chains.

The Italian company, which produces Ferrero Rocher chocolates, Nutella spread and Kinder eggs, follows Nestle and Hershey as the third major chocolate manufacturer to announce new anti-slavery moves since September.

It says it will eradicate child labor and forced adult labor from cocoa plantations it uses by 2020, verified by “independent and credible” third parties. Also, it says it will publish a more detailed progress report this summer and promises improved communication to customers.

Up to 75% of the world’s cocoa beans are grown in small farms in West Africa. In the Ivory Coast alone, there are an estimated 200,000 children working the fields, many against their will, to create chocolate enjoyed around the world. Many of the children don’t even know what chocolate is.

In January, CNN highlighted the plight of the child labor in the Ivory Coast in a documentary, “Chocolate’s Child Slaves”, by correspondent David McKenzie.

A statement from Ferrero said its new goals were made “in the light of the need for transparency in the cocoa sector.”

The industry’s regulation over cocoa farms is largely self-regulated. Critics say progress is too slow.

Read all stories about Chocolate's Child Slaves

NGO Stop the Traffik, which worked with CNN on its documentary, welcomed Ferrero’s move as a “sweet deal” for children doing “back-breaking work”. 

“Ferrero is the first global chocolate company to explicitly state they will fulfill the promise the chocolate industry made collectively in 2001 to eliminate the trafficking of children in their supply chain. Together with Mars, who have promised 100% certified chocolate by 2020, Ferrero is the only other chocolate company to have made comprehensive commitments towards their entiry cocoa supply chain.

“This individual acceptance of responsibility, coupled with a commitment to report on progress each year, should be an example to the other major chocolate companies, such as Nestlé, Kraft/Cadbury, and Hershey’s, to follow suit.”

The London-based NGO called on Ferrero to put labels on wrappers of its products so customers would know they were untainted by slavery.

A statement added: “2020 is still a long way away, and Stop the Traffik will be monitoring Ferrero’s progress.”

More than 10 years ago, two U.S. lawmakers took action to stop child labor in the industry. The Harkin-Engel Protocol, also known as the Cocoa Protocol, was signed into law on September 19, 2001.

But manufacturers raised concerns and a compromise was reached that required chocolate companies to voluntarily certify they were stopping the practice of child labor. The certification process would not involve labeling products "child-labor-free," as initially proposed.

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The kids making our kids’ Easter Eggs — SOS Children

Image via Wikipedia

Apr 21, 2011 09:29 AM

 

When British children tuck into their Easter eggs on Sunday, few will know their chocolate treats have been made by African children working as modern day slaves.

Sixty per cent of the chocolate in UK shops is produced using cocoa beans from Ghana and the Ivory Coast.
Last year, posing as cocoa dealers, a BBC team found a significant chunk of the chocolate sold in the UK is produced by children as young as eight forced to work seven hours a day.
A new report released by World Vision is asking people to slow down on their chocolate eggs and think of exploited children this Easter.

“We’re eating cheap chocolate because of trafficked children, child slavery and hazardous labour,” said the charity’s Tim Costello.

About 97 per cent of the world’s supply of chocolate does not have the ethics certificate showing that they were made without using forced and child labour, the report said.

It also revealed that as well as child labour, human trafficking is playing a huge part in making chocolates.
World Vision is suggesting a few simple strategies to wipe out child labour in chocolate production. It is calling for a certificate scheme to prove no child labour was used in making each product. Child labour is often used to make up for the lower prices, it says.

The BBC’s Panorama: Chocolate, the Bitter Truth a made a big impact raising awareness and promoting the fact that people need to take more responsibility for the food they eat and where it comes from.

Reporter Paul Kenyon investigated the supply chain that delivers most of the chocolate sold in the UK,  more than half a million tonnes a year. He found evidence of human trafficking and child slave labour. The programme also found that there is no guarantee, despite safeguards, even with chocolate marketed as FairTrade, that child labour has not been used at least somewhere along the supply chain. By the time it hits the High Street, cocoa is very hard to trace.

In a village in Ghana, Kenyon met 12-year-old Ouare Fatao Kwakou, who was sold to traffickers by his uncle and taken from neighbouring Burkina Faso to work as a cocoa picker. More than a year later, he had not been paid a penny for his work - the profits of his labour went instead to his new cocoa masters and to the uncle who sold him.

The kids making our kids’ Easter Eggs — SOS Children
Source:  soschildrensvillages.org.uk

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• Play fair this Easter (radioadelaidebreakfast.wordpress.com)

Documentary Film : The Dark Side of Chocolate by Miki Mistrati & U. Roberto Romano

The Dark Side of Chocolate :

Director: Miki Mistrati & U. Roberto Romano | Producer: Helle Faber
Genre: Documentary | Produced In: 2010 | Country: Denmark
Tags: Africa, Crime, Europe, Human Rights, Trafficking

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Synopsis: Children in Germany eat chocolate every day of the year. They enjoy the delicious taste of cocoa, which originated in Africa. But behind the production of their delicious treats, there is another taste altogether: the taste of child abusers and child slavery. In this program we will bring the chocolate makers to book, and confront them with our visual evidence. We will reveal the conditions under which the apparently innocuous chocolate bar is produced, and thereafter follow the coco beans’ route from the plantation to the chocolate bar in Germany, all with the consumer oblivious to the full story behind what their chocolate bar actually contains. In the process, those responsible will be held accountable. "The Dark Side of Chocolate" is a journalistic documentary which will reveal for the first time on film the hideous truth behind the manufacturing of German and international chocolate, as sold and enjoyed in Germany and the rest of the world.
URL: http://www.cultureunplugged.com/play/4809#videoDetail

Watch Documentaries online | Promote Documentary Film : The Dark Side of Chocolate by Miki Mistrati & U. Roberto Romano

Tyler Paper Censors Truth About Chocolate Industry Abuse | Change.org News

by Tim Newman · February 15, 2011

Valentine's Day is an opportunity for many people to learn more about how their chocolate is produced. That impulse is what motivated Leigh Vickery to write an article about the well-documented and continued use of forced, trafficked and child labor in the cocoa industry in West Africa. The article was published by Tyler Paper in Texas, but soon after it was posted, the management made the decision to remove Leigh's piece.

After censoring Leigh's article, the newspaper posted a new one by Business Editor Casey Murphy that sounds more like industry talking points than actual journalism. As evidence that labor rights are protected in the cocoa industry, Murphy quotes one company representative who states simply, "We're very comfortable with the vendors we get our chocolate from" without providing any actual evidence of suppliers' efforts to address labor rights violations. The company representative states that chocolate is "just a token of love." Unfortunately, every report on labor rights conditions in West Africa confirms that chocolate is actually linked to continued exploitation of workers.

For example, the U.S. Department of Labor cites cocoa from five different West African countries as tainted by child and forced labor. In fact, cocoa from the Ivory Coast and Nigeria is on a list from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) of products that government contractors must prove are not produced by forced or child labor due to the pervasive existence of these abuses in the region that produces the vast majority of the world's cocoa. Additional annual reports from both DOL and the State Department also highlight child labor and trafficking connected to the primary ingredient in chocolate.

The most extensive independent analysis of labor rights abuses on cocoa farms in West Africa and industry efforts to address the exploitation also contradicts Murphy's article. Tulane University's Payson Center for International Development reported in 2009 that one million children in the Ivory Coast and Ghana work in the cocoa industry and that the voluntary industry protocol cited by Murphy as evidence that the industry is dealing with this abuse has many critical aspects that have not been implemented in the ten years since the agreement was signed and that the efforts supported by companies do not sufficiently remediate forced labor and trafficking.

Unfortunately, the evidence is overwhelming that abuses continue and the efforts of the broader chocolate industry have not done enough. As Leigh's article notes, there are companies that are working more proactively to end these abuses and those companies should be acknowledged for their efforts. However, consumers have a right to know which companies are not stepping up to the plate to end such severe human rights violations.

While Tyler Paper decided to censor Leigh's article that highlighted the reality behind chocolate in favor of corporate propaganda, the International Labor Rights Forum worked with Leigh to make her article available on its blog. This might make a good temporary solution, but the bigger question is Tyler Paper's commitment to journalistic integrity. Additionally, Tyler Paper's actions fit in to a broader context where those in power have continuously attempted to silence those who expose abuse in the cocoa industry. In the Ivory Coast, journalist Guy-Andre Kieffer disappeared in 2004 while investigating corruption in the cocoa industry. This past summer, three Ivorian journalists ended up in jail after they published an article about a government probe into ongoing mismanagement and corruption in their country's cocoa industry.

The good news is that the three journalists jailed in the Ivory Coast in July 2010 were released, in part due to the international pressure from Change.org readers who took action. Those journalists ended up on our list of Human Trafficking Heroes of 2010. Let's use the collective strength we've exerted before to stand up for those who speak out against child labor and trafficking once again.

Contact Tyler Paper now to tell its management that we will not support their censorship of labor rights abuses in the cocoa industry.
Photo credit: GiantsFanatic

Tim Newman is a campaigns assistant at the International Labor Rights Forum. He also works on the Stop Firestone campaign.

RELATED PETITION

Tell the Tyler Paper to Stop Censoring Abuse in the Chocolate Industry

Tyler Paper Censors Truth About Chocolate Industry Abuse | Change.org News

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Tracing the bitter truth of chocolate and child labour

Page last updated at 12:09 GMT, Wednesday, 24 March 2010

Paul Kenyon posed as a cocoa dealer to find child labourers

This Easter, Britons will eat their way through 80m chocolate eggs without the slightest taste of how the essential ingredient in our favourite treat is harvested.

The truth, as BBC Panorama reporter Paul Kenyon discovered when he posed as a cocoa dealer in West Africa, leaves a bitter taste.

In an investigation into the supply chain that delivers much of the chocolate sold in the UK - more than half a million tonnes a year - the BBC found evidence of human trafficking and child slave labour.

Panorama also found that even chocolate marketed as Fairtrade cannot rule out that that, despite having standards and auditing in place, there may still be a possibility of child labour - as defined by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in the supply chain.

Dangerous tools
By the time it hits the High Street, cocoa becomes increasingly hard to trace.
As it passes from farmer to buyer to wholesalers, exporters, importers and manufacturers on the journey from cocoa pod to dried bean to chocolate bunny, it becomes more and more likely that the source of the bean will be lost.

Together, the two countries produce 60% of the world's cocoa and more than 10m people survive off the industry.

In a village in Ghana, Kenyon met 12-year-old Ouare Fatao Kwakou, who was sold to traffickers by his uncle and taken from neighbouring and impoverished Burkina Faso to work as a cocoa picker.

Ouare Fatao was taken from Burkina Faso and sold as a cocoa picker

More than a year later, he had not been paid a penny for his work - the profits of his labour going instead to his new cocoa masters and to the uncle who sold him.

In the port city of San Pedro in Ivory Coast, Kenyon posed as a trader and sold on cocoa beans which had been produced by the worst forms of child labour.

It is at this point where the traceability of the cocoa ends and it can be sold on to major chocolate makers worldwide who cannot say how it was sourced.

The end buyer of Kenyon's child labour beans was one of the world's biggest exporters who in turn sell it on to several well known high street names.

Fairtrade
Panorama has seen documents which show that in September 2009, the Fairtrade cocoa co-operative in Ghana which supplies Cadbury and Divine suspended seven out of 33 of their cocoa farming communities in one of the major growing regions after they were found to be using the worst forms of child labour.

The co-operative, Kuapa Kokoo, is supplied by 1,200 different cocoa communities that are made up of more than 45,000 farmers.

Following remedial action by Kuapa Kokoo, the Fairtrade suspension was lifted in early January. The co-operative said it is the only time that it has failed an audit of its farmers' practices with respect to child labour in 15 years as a Fairtrade supplier.

Harriet Lamb, executive director of the Fairtrade Foundation in the UK, said the suspensions of farming communities that are suspected of using child labour is evidence that the Fairtrade system is working.
It means that unlike other chocolate products, Fairtrade cocoa is traceable to the source farm and action can be taken when bad practices are uncovered, as happened in the case of Kuapa Kokoo.

Cocoa beans are dried in the hot sun before being sold on to wholesalers

"We make sure in that case that absolutely we're not selling any cocoa on Fairtrade terms while we put in place the systems and structures to stop it happening again," she said of the recent seven suspensions.

In a statement to Panorama, Cadbury said it had not been supplied with any cocoa beans from any of the seven communities in question either before or during the suspension.

It said: "The fact that child labour issues were identified…is evidence the Fairtrade certification process is working."

No schooling
In Ivory Coast, Panorama met a farmer who relies on his 8-year-old brother and 11-year-old son to help harvest the cocoa that goes to the co-operative supplying Nestle as part of its recent Fairtrade initiative. In January, the company began selling Fairtrade four-finger Kit Kats in the UK.
In cocoa-growing West Africa, subsistence farmers who cannot afford to pay wages have for generations seen children as free labour.

Neither of the young boys goes to school and figures compiled by the US State Department show that they are among an estimated 100,000 Ivorian children who are child labourers in the cocoa industry.
Although Nestle does buy from the cooperative that the farmer sells his crop to, the company said in a statement: "Panorama has been unable to provide us with any evidence whatsoever of child labour being used to produce cocoa beans purchased by Nestlé."

'Complete failure'
In America - the world's largest consumer of chocolate - US Congressman Eliot Engel proposed legislation nine years ago that would have required all chocolate sold in America to state on the label that it is slave labour free or child slave labour free.

But in 2001, he agreed instead to an industry regulated six-point plan to put an end to child labour in the chocolate trade, with the threat of legislation looming should they fail to act.

Impoverished villages in Burkina Faso are a source of child labour

"I didn't trust them at first, but once they came around I trusted them and you know the proof is in the pudding so to speak. If they became hostile or were dragging their feet, we could always resort to the legislation," he said of the United States' chocolate giants.

But lawyer Terry Collingsworth, who has acted against the chocolate industry, said the plan is a "complete failure" and it is time to enact the law that Mr Engel first floated nine years ago.

"Let's dust off that law, and if you mean what you say and you want to stop the use of child slaves producing products like cocoa, let's pass that law, and then we'll have something to work with so that we can successfully stop this crime."

A result of the partnership - a collaboration between Mr Engel, his colleague Senator Tom Harkin, and the US chocolate industry - was to establish a foundation to help end the worst forms of child labour in West Africa, known as the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI).

Executive director Peter McAllister said the chocolate companies recognise that there is a problem and are doing their best to find a solution to the practice of using child labour, adding that human rights issues are "complex and challenging" for the companies involved.

"If there wasn't a problem we wouldn't be here so we acknowledge the problem," he said of the widespread practice of using children - a sensitive issue on the ground in West Africa - both politically and economically for the families that need the income from their children working.

Mr McAllister said that is why the ICI is working in 243 communities in West Africa and has already made sure that 16,000 children are in school.

Panorama - Chocolate: The Bitter Truth, BBC One, Wednesday, 24 March at 2100GMT and then, for UK audiences only, on the BBC iPlayer

http://news.bbc.co.uk/panorama/hi/front_page/newsid_8583000/8583499.stm